Even in the wake of the recent market downturn, retail brokerage firms are continuing to spend money on e-business initiatives. WS&T Week editor Ivy Schmerken takes a close look at e-business financial services trends in a special report.

The Vanguard Group to offer a new suite of online personal financial management services on its website; BITA Plus to host a lunchtime seminar on "Managing Risk in Volatile Markets; Advent Software, Inc. announces that Madeleine Albright will serve as the keynote speaker at the company's annual Spring Conference.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange and the International Securities Exchange have agreed to link their respective markets via technology supplied by Interactive Brokers LLC; The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Blackbird Holdings form an alliance; Cr edit Suisse First Boston names A. George Oomman its head of derivative strategy research.

The Reuters' Investor/Media Offices have moved to the Americas Headquarters in Times Square; Standard & Poor's ComStock upgrades its Xstream Quotes with several new features; Wiesenberger and UpTick Data Technologies form a strategic alliance to create a new series of research reports.

Rosemont Partners announces completion of an investment in Persimmon Research Partners, Inc.; RIXML.org holds an industry launch event to unveil version 1.0 of the RIXML specification; Wilco International signs an agreement with the Terence Chapman Group PLC for the acquisition of the business and products of TCA Synergo.

This month WS&T decided to give you an indepth look at one major player's STP strategy. We chose an institution that has been known for its build strategy, an institution that is involved in myriad facets of the industry and an institution that is successful and well respected. This feature gives you Merrill Lynch's STP strategy, discussing goals, challenges and successes.

Investigating Wall Street's next big decision: The choice: which entity to rely on for straight-through-processing (STP) needs in terms of post-trade, pre-settlement matching--the Global Straight Through Processing Association (GSTPA) or Omgeo (the combination of Thomson Financial Electronic Settlement Group and the TradeSuite business of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation).

Claremont Investment Partners has chosen MFACT from Global Investment Systems as the product that will allow the company to bring its mutual fund accounting in-house, thus reducing the chance for errors.